REUNION TOURISM RETURNS TO INDIA TO DRUM UP MORE SUPPORT

(Posted 23rd January 2016)

After being voted best emerging tourist destination in India in 2015 does the island of Reunion continue its charm offensive to Indian travel professionals. The Reunion Island Tourism Board, in short IRT, earlier this month participated in B2B events in Nagpur and Pondicherry.

Since August 2014 have Indian travel and tour agencies, organizing stays of less than fifteen days in Reunion Island, been accredited to provide Indian citizens travelling with them on package tours, with a Visa waiver.

This procedure is valid for all Indian passport holders residing in India and in any part of the world. Increasing the visibility and reputation of Reunion in India and to increase arrivals from India to Reunion has since then been a key priority in IRT’s global marketing strategy and the increase in visitor numbers has affirmed the validity of the steps taken.

Global Panorama Showcase

The Global Showcase Panorama (GPS) was held in Nagpur (India) from 08th to 10th of January 2016. This professional event allowed Cathydja Patel, in charge of promotion for ESRD in India, to meet with tourism specialists and travel agents in the region and present Reunion’s many varied tourism attractions to her audience.

The event attracted nearly 100 exhibitors from the tourism sector and more than 500 visitors flocked to the Reunion stand during the threedays.

For the IRT, the GPS provided the opportunity to raise the profile of the island of Reunion in this particular Indian market and increase sales to Reunion.

Additionally were some 75 travel agents trained about the destinations and over 100 new trade contacts were made ??there.

The generous stand space allowed travel agents to linger and take their time to discover the attractions of the island of Reunion. Be it visits for a honeymoon or to playgolf, two themes highly popular in India, those aspects were of particular interest to the Indian travel professionals. A new destination video posted on site also helped to establish the attractiveness of Reunion for visiting agents, being able to see the island from the ground and from the air.

Destination Forum

The first edition of the Forum of Destination was held on January 12 in partnership with the representatives of three French regions present in Tamil Nadu, including the island of Reunion, and the island’s home airline AirAustral. The event was held at the residence of the Consulate General inPondicherry, a central and attractive place.

The Forum allowed Anne-Laure Payet to promote Reunion in India and to make initial contact with new agencies to better understand their needs and be able to communicate marketing efforts better to key partners in the Indianmarket. The objectives of the Reunion Island Tourism (IRT) revolved around three axes:

1. Train tour operators to the destination Meeting
2. Documenting the tour operators on the island
3. Encourage tour operators to sell the destination

Destination of the Forum program was divided into three distinct parts:

• The workshop helped to meet and interact with new representatives of tour operators based in Pondicherry by introducing Reunion to them;
• The presentations of the regions have helped to focus on the destination. Note that the new Reunion destination video presentation really impressed these tour operators;
• The B2B round table sessions led to interesting exchanges.

Indian agencies have show keen interest in destination Reunion. Some of them like Travels, HelloHappiness or Easyway expressed their willingness to expand sales to the island of Reunion.

For more information about Reunion click on www.reunion.fr